Excerpt from The Wonders of Nature and Art: Containing an Account of the Most Remarkable and Curious Animals, and Mineral and Vegetable Productions in the World; Also, the Manufacturers, Buildings, and Wonderful Inventions of Man; Compiled From Works of Established Celebrity Notwithstanding the precautions that are taken, ' there are scarcely two out of twenty that escape. It is certain, that, from fifteen to eighteen miles round this tree, not only no human creature can exist, but that in that Space of ground rio living animal of any kind has ever been discovered. Every man of quality has his dagger or other arms' poisoned with the gum of this destructive tree and, in times of war, the Malayans poison the springs and other waters with it. By this treacherous practice the Dutch suffered greatly during the last war, as it occasioned the loss of half their army. For this rea son, they have ever since kept fish in those springs of which they drink, and sentinels are placed near them, who inspect the waters every. Hour to see whether the fish are alive. If they march into an enemy's country, they always carry live fish with them, which they throw into the water some hours before they venture to drink of it, by which means they have been able in some degree to provide for their security. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.